This feature is only available to website accounts with Administrator authority.
¶ Overview
A powerful way to update the events on the conference website is to transfer specific fields back and forth between a spreadsheet and the Events database.
Here are some specific examples where this feature might be used.
- Assigning Poster, Oral, or Spotlight events to a Poster or Oral session
- Updating the Event page titles (type_display_name)
- Assigning Categories (Keywords) to Poster Events
- Assign Poster Room and Position
- Creating new events using a spreadsheet
The conference website supports importing and exporting spreadsheets for the Events database using the django-import-export package. This package supports import/export to/from a spreadsheet and a database. Django-import-export supports many different spreadsheet formats and provides a nice preview page of all the changes to be applied to the database before an import is completed.
The Events data items (fields) to be imported or exported are internally defined by something called a Resource which is part of django-import-export design. The conference website extends this design and provides for what's called a Resource Class Proxy Model which allows selecting fields to be exported and imported without writing new software! A Resouce Class Proxy Model is a database entry in the conference website that selects a base Resource class and a selection of fields for import/export.
¶ Exporting Events to a Spreadsheet
Export events:
- Go to the Events list admin page:
- Log in using an account with administrator privileges
- From the home page go to Admin->Database->Core->Events
- Select the proper child events using the Filter column
- Click the conference year under the "By conference" filter
- For Poster events click "Poster" under the "By type" filter
- For Oral and Spotlight events click "Oral" and "Spotlight" under the "By type" filter
- check other filters as needed (e.g. "By decision" or "By Source URL"
- Click the Export button above the Filter column
- On the Export page, select the desired Resource
- Select the desired spreadsheet format
- Click Submit
¶ Importing Events from a Spreadsheet
Import events:
- Go to the Events list admin page:
- Log in using an account with administrator privileges
- From the home page go to Admin->Database->Core->Events
- Click the Import button above the Filter column
- On the Import page, select the resource matching the columns in your spreadsheet (extra columns are fine and will be ignored)
- Choose the file on your computer you wish to import
- Select the format of the spreadsheet file
- Click Submit
¶ Create a Resource Proxy Class Model with Specific Fields (Advanced)
To create or update a new set of spreadsheet columns for import/export you can create or update a new Resource Class Proxy Model by going to the proper admin page below:
- NeurIPS Resource Class Proxy Models Admin Page
- ICML Resource Class Proxy Models Admin Page
- ICLR Resource Class Proxy Models Admin Page
- MLSYS Resource Class Proxy Models Admin Page
- AISTATS Resource Class Proxy Models Admin Page
If there are ⚠ Warning messages on these pages that say Update Resource Classes to fix then simply push the UPDATE RESOURCE CLASSES button. This warning message occurs when the base fields of any resources have changed and pushing this button allows the database to be updated to match the latest software. Note that if fields are deleted or even renamed then these fields will be removed from existing Resource Class Proxy Model instances.
Each Resource Class Proxy Model has a name, a base Resource class, and a set of fields from the base Resource class. For Events there are two base resource classes, EventsResource and SourceIdEventsResource.
See the example pages above for example Resource Class Proxy Model instances.
¶ Two Events Base Resources: EventsResource and SourceIdEventsResource
In order to import updates to specific Events from a spreadsheet the importer must figure out which event instance to update. The importer does this with special fields in the spreadsheet indentified as import_id_fields. For Events there are two different ways to identify existing instances thus the two different base resource classes. EventsResource uses the website database id (literally called "id") to associate a row in the spreadsheet with a database instance. SourceIdEventsResource uses two fields, sourceurl and sourceid, to find a database instance. Sourceurl and sourceid are generated when importing papers from CMT or OpenReview. The sourceurl indicates which conference or workshop was imported via CMT or OpenReview. The sourceid is the paper number from CMT or OpenReview. The program committee and/or workshop organizer often prefer to use the sourceid to identify poster or oral events.
Note that in order to import from EventsResource the "id" field must be included in the chosen fields for the Resource Class Proxy Model. And for SourceIdEventsResource both "sourceurl" and "sourceid" must be in the chosen fields. A spreadsheet may include all three fields but only the specific import_id_fields in the base resource are used to find existing instances.
¶ Example
Here is an example image of how a Resouce Class Proxy Model should look after it is set up. This example is for assigning poster, oral or spotlight events to a parent session.
